Hey, guys. This question specifically is for my daily driver, an '85 Buick (Mods feel free to delete if you wish). I figured control arms are such a universal thing that maybe someone here has run into something similar or could benefit from any responses on the topic.

As posted from here...

Old '85 Buick.

Replacing the upper ball-joint has been a real damn adventure. Some engineer thought it'd be a great idea to secure the factory ball joints to the control arm with welded rivets. I've been grinding most of the day with an angle-grinder just to get all that crap off.

Got the new ball joint on (uses bolts, lock-washers, and nuts, thank God), then decided to address what turns out to have been making the loud "clunking" noise I'd been hearing when coming to a stop. Turns out that the two large bolts securing my upper control arm were quite loose, and had about 1-1.5 inches of slack where the control arm could slide around before it got to the nut on the back.

So I go through hell to get those tightened (not exactly a lot of space back there to hold a wrench on the nut as you tighten the bolt from under the control arm. This raises the control arm a few inches, as it is no longer dangling down due to the bolt-slack.

The problem is that the upper control arm will not swivel at its joints down to meet the hole that the ball joint stud goes through.

At first, I thought the lower control arm might just need to be jacked up to meet it. No dice. Jacking up the lower control arm just lifts the entire car. I also checked on the passenger side and the upper control arm angles sharply down to meet the hole for the stud.

Back to the problem side, tried whacking it with a rubber mallet a few times. It was not budging from its' parallel-to-the-ground angle.

Any ideas? Or has anyone run into this before? I know I don't want to spray WD-40 on the rubber joints to try loosening them up because of it will eat away at the rubber, right?


Craig

 

If the entire car is lifting on the jack, your shock/strut (dont know the exact setup for your car) is loaded. You need to relieve the pressure from the spring so the arms can come together.

 

This is for an 85 buick, not a f-body